Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Emperor Julian]

2. It's grimderp in tone, no matter what you do humanity is losing the war against the Cthulhu aliens and cultists (i have no idea how the metaplot progressed after the initial book but I bet it's still like that)

Weirdly no, in the first metaplot book Damnation View humanity is being pushed back on all fronts included the fall of china, a counter offence crushed and the imminant arrival of mi-go reinforcements but meta plot book 2 Burning Horizon mankind launches two succesful counter attacks on the mi-go and the interal problems are begining to emerge between the order of dagon and the nylathotep corporation over who gets dibs on the spooky tech. The situation is pretty bad but it's implied we have a fighting chance.

Weirdly one of the books actually plays on the weird fetish shit and uses it as a negative, their's species of 'cute' horny monster girl furry things out for sex but the whole things a honey trap to summon Shub-Niggurath and will result in northern usa turning into hell on earth and any offspring looking like john carpenters the Thing.
Having played a couple of games i'd recommend figuring what sort of campaign you're running and tell the players what they can and can't play and keep an eye out for anyone who wants to play a Nazzadi with big tits and body alteration spells.
Personally I'm amazed how Islam being a hollowed out dying faith in setting didnt draw more ire outside of rpg forums.

 

[Snekposter]

As someone who has limited experience with Palladium stuff, I can safely say the S.D.C./M.D.C. stuff is the worst part of the game, simply because of how inconsistent is, especially since you can have hilarity like M.D.C. infantry armor or just straight up M.D.C humans in certain settings, so the balance gets even more whacked out when that stuff moves around.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Crossposting from the Creative works you enjoyed until politics happened thread, originally by @Terrifik

Dungeons & Dragons Officially Removes Negative Racial Ability Score Modifiers From Rules

Spoiler: black

Dungeons & Dragons players will no longer have a negative ability score modifier when building a character of a certain race. Last week, Dungeons & Dragons officially released updated errata for a number of their sourcebooks and adventures. The Volo's Guide to Monsters errata was particularly important in that it removed the negative ability score modifiers for playable kobolds and orcs. While kobolds originally had a -2 modifier to their Strength score, and orcs had a -2 modifier to their Intelligence, the updated rules remove those modifiers entirely from the game. Additionally, the errata also removes the orc's "Menacing" trait with the "Primal Intuition" trait, which grants players proficiency in two of the following options - Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Survival.

The updated rules reflect previous comments by the Dungeons & Dragons team that promised better representation and a movement towards giving the player characters individualism as opposed to forcing them to fit within cultural stereotypes within the game's lore. While players can still choose to use the cultural generalities of D&D's various campaign settings when creating a character, the updated rules allows for greater expression and also gives DMs more freedom to create their own worlds where the standard D&D cultural stereotypes aren't present.

In addition to removing negative ability score modifiers, Dungeons & Dragons is also introducing a new set of alternative rules that give players the options of moving ability score modifiers to other ability scores to match a character's background. This opens the door for more non-traditional character builds such as an orc wizard or a halfling barbarian. These alternative rules will appear in the upcoming Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which will be released later this year.

Racial Traits (p. 11. The third sentence has been changed to “Some of these races are more or less powerful than the typical D&D races—a reason for the monstrous races to be used in a campaign with care.”

Kobold Traits (p. 119). In the Ability Score Increase trait, the text has changed to read “Your Dexterity score increases by 2.” The adjustment to Strength has been removed.

Orc Traits (p. 120). In the Ability Score Increase trait, the text has changed to read “Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.” The adjustment to Intelligence has been removed. Orc Traits (p. 120). The Menacing trait has been replaced with the following trait: Primal Intuition. You have proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Survival.

 

[Adamska]

Crossposting from the Creative works you enjoyed until politics happened thread, originally by @Terrifik

View attachment 1643423
Dungeons & Dragons Officially Removes Negative Racial Ability Score Modifiers From Rules

Spoiler: black

Dungeons & Dragons players will no longer have a negative ability score modifier when building a character of a certain race. Last week, Dungeons & Dragons officially released updated errata for a number of their sourcebooks and adventures. The Volo's Guide to Monsters errata was particularly important in that it removed the negative ability score modifiers for playable kobolds and orcs. While kobolds originally had a -2 modifier to their Strength score, and orcs had a -2 modifier to their Intelligence, the updated rules remove those modifiers entirely from the game. Additionally, the errata also removes the orc's "Menacing" trait with the "Primal Intuition" trait, which grants players proficiency in two of the following options - Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Survival.

The updated rules reflect previous comments by the Dungeons & Dragons team that promised better representation and a movement towards giving the player characters individualism as opposed to forcing them to fit within cultural stereotypes within the game's lore. While players can still choose to use the cultural generalities of D&D's various campaign settings when creating a character, the updated rules allows for greater expression and also gives DMs more freedom to create their own worlds where the standard D&D cultural stereotypes aren't present.

In addition to removing negative ability score modifiers, Dungeons & Dragons is also introducing a new set of alternative rules that give players the options of moving ability score modifiers to other ability scores to match a character's background. This opens the door for more non-traditional character builds such as an orc wizard or a halfling barbarian. These alternative rules will appear in the upcoming Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which will be released later this year.

They're removing the negatives entirely because the faggots working at Wizards probably literally shake at the idea of having flaws. These morons don't understand that a perfect character is a boring and badly written one and get angry and scream if they don't win at all times.

Can't wait for them to retardedly remove the races in full.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

They're removing the negatives entirely because the faggots working at Wizards probably literally shake at the idea of having flaws. These morons don't understand that a perfect character is a boring and badly written one and get angry and scream if they don't win at all times.

Can't wait for them to retardedly remove the races in full.

They might as well at this point. If you can switch stats around and buy new powers as your orc than what's the fucking point of even having races? The game starts to creek and break apart if you roll stats at that point. Fucking lame.

 

[Waifuwars]

Crossposting from the Creative works you enjoyed until politics happened thread, originally by @Terrifik

View attachment 1643423
Dungeons & Dragons Officially Removes Negative Racial Ability Score Modifiers From Rules

Spoiler: black

Dungeons & Dragons players will no longer have a negative ability score modifier when building a character of a certain race. Last week, Dungeons & Dragons officially released updated errata for a number of their sourcebooks and adventures. The Volo's Guide to Monsters errata was particularly important in that it removed the negative ability score modifiers for playable kobolds and orcs. While kobolds originally had a -2 modifier to their Strength score, and orcs had a -2 modifier to their Intelligence, the updated rules remove those modifiers entirely from the game. Additionally, the errata also removes the orc's "Menacing" trait with the "Primal Intuition" trait, which grants players proficiency in two of the following options - Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Survival.

The updated rules reflect previous comments by the Dungeons & Dragons team that promised better representation and a movement towards giving the player characters individualism as opposed to forcing them to fit within cultural stereotypes within the game's lore. While players can still choose to use the cultural generalities of D&D's various campaign settings when creating a character, the updated rules allows for greater expression and also gives DMs more freedom to create their own worlds where the standard D&D cultural stereotypes aren't present.

In addition to removing negative ability score modifiers, Dungeons & Dragons is also introducing a new set of alternative rules that give players the options of moving ability score modifiers to other ability scores to match a character's background. This opens the door for more non-traditional character builds such as an orc wizard or a halfling barbarian. These alternative rules will appear in the upcoming Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which will be released later this year.

I'm not surprised that this is happening. This is what happens when you stop gatekeeping and try to appeal to normies. I say this from having played with some people who were doing their masters in "game design" at a major university. This black guy would go on and on about how orcs were racist because they were obviously based off of black people and elves were racist because they were based off of Asians. Now, if you were a real nerd you'd know that none of this was true at all. Which always brings me back to this diagram (except replace dudebros and girls with rabid SJWs):

 

[WinchesterPremium]

Crossposting from the Creative works you enjoyed until politics happened thread, originally by @Terrifik

View attachment 1643423
Dungeons & Dragons Officially Removes Negative Racial Ability Score Modifiers From Rules

Spoiler: black

Dungeons & Dragons players will no longer have a negative ability score modifier when building a character of a certain race. Last week, Dungeons & Dragons officially released updated errata for a number of their sourcebooks and adventures. The Volo's Guide to Monsters errata was particularly important in that it removed the negative ability score modifiers for playable kobolds and orcs. While kobolds originally had a -2 modifier to their Strength score, and orcs had a -2 modifier to their Intelligence, the updated rules remove those modifiers entirely from the game. Additionally, the errata also removes the orc's "Menacing" trait with the "Primal Intuition" trait, which grants players proficiency in two of the following options - Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Survival.

The updated rules reflect previous comments by the Dungeons & Dragons team that promised better representation and a movement towards giving the player characters individualism as opposed to forcing them to fit within cultural stereotypes within the game's lore. While players can still choose to use the cultural generalities of D&D's various campaign settings when creating a character, the updated rules allows for greater expression and also gives DMs more freedom to create their own worlds where the standard D&D cultural stereotypes aren't present.

In addition to removing negative ability score modifiers, Dungeons & Dragons is also introducing a new set of alternative rules that give players the options of moving ability score modifiers to other ability scores to match a character's background. This opens the door for more non-traditional character builds such as an orc wizard or a halfling barbarian. These alternative rules will appear in the upcoming Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which will be released later this year.

You could...already make an orc wizard or halfling barbarian. Do game writers realize not everyone has to be 100% optimized powergame? If anything those concepts are more interesting when there are in-universe reasons for these things not being common. And like...even if it does, the GM can just wave his houserule wand and say your perfectly optimized elf wizard is actually an Orc. One of the benefits of tabletop games is they're infinitely customizable. You can put "skins" on your character by crossing out a word and replacing it with a different one.

 

[JektheDumbass]

I played an orc sorcerer called Krunk the Barbarian. He'd buff up and stab things with his spear. Fun times.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

"Black people ARE NOT Orcs, haven't you ever read Tolkien?!"
"What's a 'Tolkien'?"

 

[Adamska]

It's just amusing that they accidentally reveal they see black people as rapacious and rampaging monsters with a inborn lust for civilized peoples and love of chaos, and then have the gall to claim that it was the players they hate that came up with that shit rather than themselves.

 

[Was]

yeah I un D&D 5e games with my sandpape pesonality and digitl slaughte house. If you ae inteesting in uffeing send me a PM.

 

[Adamska]

Now that the site isn't currently shitting itself, here's more of Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress:

Keep in mind that Wizards also thought this was a brilliant idea to make, a book where the writer mentions and mocks the playerbase as weird boys you can use as levers to get into games. Very insightful on their insight on people even back then and her personality that.

Also for some reason I've gotten mildly interested in learning more about how they utterly fucked up the Dark Sun setting now that I've read more up about it. Something about murking all the Sorcerer Kings casually, which apparently is designed to be impossible. Oh, and how the main guy behind it all was an angry halfling who for some stupid reason picked humans rather than his own kind to destroy the world.

 

[Was]

I actually Run tabletop games. I have 2 ongoing and I'll post links heRe: I am awaRe that this is a mistake but I'm doing it anyways.

Un Relentia Online: Chaotic Evil/HaRdcoRe DaRk Fantasy Dungeon CRawls. I plan on RecoRding and livestReaming these. We'Re using D&D 5e

https://discord.gg/J7qDsp7

It's wide open and a lot moRe game than Role-play. If you want to meme on me, expect to get shut down. If you want to meme on Roll20 Randoms, you will have fun. Examples of past dungeons:


My peRsonal gay sex seRveR. Join if you wanna chat oR hang, game, etc. I Run a closed, moRe tRaditional and sRs game called Police EncounteRs. Despite it's geneRic title, it's much less COPS and much moRe of a zany vibRant action/dRama. HeRe's a scReencap of the last 2 sessions:

https://discord.gg/T6Ve8Mn

 

[Dang Woodchucks!]

Ah, so https://thetrove.is/Books/Call of Cthulhu/ besides Cthulhutech which is it's own thing are any of he other here usable for settings in CoC/Delta Green?

You could check out World War Chtulhu, it's divided into three flavors: Darkest Hour (WWII); London (during the Blitz), and the Cold War.

Without giving too much away, your characters are recruited into the network of a British spymaster named "N" who leads a secret war against the things that should not be.

My favorite aspect is that while still painting the Axis as the enemy during the first two settings, they are not explicitly connected to the horrors (so no, the SS aren't secretly Deep One cultists) and while advised against, it is a very real possibility that your team can end up working with enemy troops to survive the onslaught of the Mythos.

I recommend looking it up, as I am in process of doing myself, as I don't think my description can do it justice.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

So I have an idea for an early campaign mechanic to somewhat protect my players from their own hubris and I thought I’d take a moment to run it by you guys before I settled on it.



So first you need some general background on the setting I would thing to properly understand what I’m hoping to accomplish here so I’ll try to make this as concise as possible.



The campaign is going to be a 5e fantasy adventure taking place in a sandbox where the players should they do desire could potentially undertake any number of different organic quests in various parts of the world while other events proceed throughout the world that can be effected by their actions or proceed unfettered by their inaction. That is to say that what I will be explaining here is simply a small piece of the early game adventure meant to foreshadow later events and build upon an air of drama and intrigue.



My thinking is that the BBEG, who is in a partnership and romantic relationship with the sub BBEG, will in the guise of a man named Polybuis Arcadia hire the party to locate a list of people whom unbeknownst to the party are the last surviving members of a group who worked an operation called Project V. Project V is in truth how the sub BBEG was created through the selective breeding, training, and brainwashing of Eladrin kidnapped from the Feywild in an effort to create the perfect soldiers. The party will be sent to various locations across the map to locations across the map in order to find these individuals, presumably picking up clues to the next location en route to the prior. However, they will have been instructed not to kill these individuals but instead to simply report back with the locations. This is because the sub BBEG is actually tailing the party in secret, intent on killing the remaining members of Project V and ultimately completing her revenge. This in turn allows me as a DM to create the aforementioned layer of protection for the players.



My thinking is that should the players in during this early section of the adventure TPK for whatever reason they could be saved by the sub BBEG post knockout. They would wake to find the enemies that downed them likely riddled with arrows but no savior in sight. I think that this along with some hints here and there sprinkled in through dialog and notes will paint a curious picture for the players of the events unfolding as the members of Project V wind up dead one by one shortly after they leave them with each subsequent member more paranoid and perhaps alluding to the fear that someone is looking to kill them for revenge.



Now, I’m sure your wondering why the BBEG and or the sub BBEG would want the party to survive and that is a good question for which I have an interesting answer. The BBEG and sub BBEG seek to create a world without war, intending to sacrifice their own salvation for the benefit of the world. To do this they intend to goad various countries into war with each other and take over during the ensuing chaos with an army of small undying plant creatures called Vegepygmies.



Logistics of that aside they ultimately understand that once they create this one world government that they cannot be the ones to remain in charge as the people would still harbor deep animosity towards them for the various war crimes no doubt committed to reach this utopia. Thusly they need heroes beloved by the people to replace them once they’ve set the stage. At least that’s the general idea.

 

[SuiSui1]

@DDBCAE CBAADCBE

Hm, I'm not sure having a self sacrificing BBEG would be a good villain. Now here is my idea: Lich.

You introduce him as ah Xavier who is in a wheelchair, (his upper part of his body is still fleshly while the bottom part was skeleton but hidden by a blanket.) He'll tell that he was once a sorcerer but a group of adventures stole his stuff and left him crippled. He'll have his assistant Phoenix follow along but just to report if he needs to hire a new group if this group gets killed.

Then here are the Sub-bosses? The former adventurers.

Cyclops, a human man that was turned into a cyclops that shoots fire from his eye. Item: Jewel of Xavier.

Wolverine, a human man that transformed into a bear sized Wolverine. Item: Necklace of Xavier.

Storm, a Human female that transformed into a storm elemental. Item: Staff of Xavier.

Colossus, a human male that transformed into a suit of armor. Item: Armor of Xavier.

Angel, a human male that was transformed into an Aasimar. Item: Wings of Xavier.

Once your adventurers beat the sub boss, the item loses it's potency and becomes useless so they can't abuse it for their own desires.
When Xavier gets all five items, he'll reveal that he can walk and that he is a lich.

Now the following kind of follows your original idea DC. If you want Xavier to be "bad" have him claim that one realm is not enough and that he'll go to conquer all others but he wants his phylactery to be protected so that would be the adventurers job to protect this world from anything from the outside. For "good", Xavier would warn the adventurers that something evil is coming and he is going to go and stop it but he needs the world to be prepared for the invasion. A fake fight at an important festival would give the adventurers now "heroes" the authority to protect the world.

hope that helps.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

@DDBCAE CBAADCBE

Hm, I'm not sure having a self sacrificing BBEG would be a good villain. Now here is my idea: Lich.

You introduce him as ah Xavier who is in a wheelchair, (his upper part of his body is still fleshly while the bottom part was skeleton but hidden by a blanket.) He'll tell that he was once a sorcerer but a group of adventures stole his stuff and left him crippled. He'll have his assistant Phoenix follow along but just to report if he needs to hire a new group if this group gets killed.

Then here are the Sub-bosses? The former adventurers.

Cyclops, a human man that was turned into a cyclops that shoots fire from his eye. Item: Jewel of Xavier.

Wolverine, a human man that transformed into a bear sized Wolverine. Item: Necklace of Xavier.

Storm, a Human female that transformed into a storm elemental. Item: Staff of Xavier.

Colossus, a human male that transformed into a suit of armor. Item: Armor of Xavier.

Angel, a human male that was transformed into an Aasimar. Item: Wings of Xavier.

Once your adventurers beat the sub boss, the item loses it's potency and becomes useless so they can't abuse it for their own desires.
When Xavier gets all five items, he'll reveal that he can walk and that he is a lich.

Now the following kind of follows your original idea DC. If you want Xavier to be "bad" have him claim that one realm is not enough and that he'll go to conquer all others but he wants his phylactery to be protected so that would be the adventurers job to protect this world from anything from the outside. For "good", Xavier would warn the adventurers that something evil is coming and he is going to go and stop it but he needs the world to be prepared for the invasion. A fake fight at an important festival would give the adventurers now "heroes" the authority to protect the world.

hope that helps.

Funny you mentioned a marvel character as my BBEG is loosely based Doctor Doom. Incredibly long story short he has an eldritch god trapped in a crystal and is stealing it’s power like a sort of pseudo warlock patron relationship. Having seen into the crystal he was shown a seemingly infinite number of futures one of which is where he had taken over the country and there was no more war, famine and everyone seemed generally happy. Now he seeks to achieve that future by any means necessary as to see his one true love happy, that being the sub BBEG who practically raised him. She’s like 600+ years old because she’s an Eladrin while he’s just a human so it’s a bit complicated.

I guess I should have said before that the BBEGs have no intention of just letting the party win. The final fight is meant to be a trial of their worthiness to see if they can even bear the responsibility of ruling the country, if they can really and truly carry the mantle of heroes. The whole thing is meant to present moral dilemmas and make the players question their own motives and choices.
It’s meant to come off as a calculated manipulation of events with the BBEG having set the adventurers down their path in the first place with the intention of molding them into heroes through adversity. In that sense it mirrors Project V.

 

[SuiSui1]

Funny you mentioned a marvel character as my BBEG is loosely based Doctor Doom. Incredibly long story short he has an eldritch god trapped in a crystal and is stealing it’s power like a sort of pseudo warlock patron relationship. Having seen into the crystal he was shown a seemingly infinite number of futures one of which is where he had taken over the country and there was no more war, famine and everyone seemed generally happy. Now he seeks to achieve that future by any means necessary as to see his one true love happy, that being the sub BBEG who practically raised him. She’s like 600+ years old because she’s an Eladrin while he’s just a human so it’s a bit complicated.

I guess I should have said before that the BBEGs have no intention of just letting the party win. The final fight is meant to be a trial of their worthiness to see if they can even bear the responsibility of ruling the country, if they can really and truly carry the mantle of heroes. The whole thing is meant to present moral dilemmas and make the players question their own motives and choices.
It’s meant to come off as a calculated manipulation of events with the BBEG having set the adventurers down their path in the first place with the intention of molding them into heroes through adversity. In that sense it mirrors Project V.

Oh ok, that clears up the BBEG's intentions. I'm just a sucker for having the party create their own demise. Best of luck on your campaign.

 

[Adamska]

If we're talking about BBEGs that were created, not even a couple of weeks ago was the longest running one I ever made that stayed in most of the sessions (at least as a background element) finally bit the dust after he kept forcing encounters.

He was a loose and unholy mix of celtic lord, the unseelie court, and twisted geneticist and daemonologist. His basic schtick was he, like all Drow in my setting, were Elves that refused to be conquered by the Orcs in their great "not-roman" empire. This was mainly because they could not accept the idea that they would lose their position as the top caste in their engineered society where they ruled over humans like gods. So he plots for centuries, using his knowledge of genesplicing and soul magic to basically cheat death by shedding bodies like they were the shells of a spider.

He had fingers in many pies, such as using cordyceps fungi to make supercontrolled monsters, spider DNA to make the Spider Leg Horrors as "Sweepers", and created Driders as a fucked up way to keep even the recently dead and dying retinue he kept going. He was the type of asshole who'd casually make ever expanding and enlarging locusts as a plague of spite. He also created evil duplicates of the party... and not all of those were taken care of.

He was fun, but I understand the relief they felt when they finally got him. He just wouldn't leave plotwise in my head due to his pride, which was his greatest weakness. Well that and a fucking cannon to the face as he transfered bodies to a skinless version of the party's Barb/War Hulk combo.

 

[Snekposter]

Firepower solves a great many problems. Which is why I like running elves with guns. They're already nasty with bows thanks to that dex, now give them the final argument of kings and next thing you know they've become so good at murder-hoboing they get bored and set up Outer Heaven so they can rule as King of the Murder-Hobos. (Note: Has not actually happened yet, sadly.) My one Shadowrun char (since I haven't really had any sort of long-term game in that) is a heavy weapons elf. Its surprisingly easy to be a party tank when you can toss out 11 or 12 hit dice with an Ingram White Knight and laugh at recoil and move penalties thanks to its gas vents and your gryomount. And if things get really hairy, just toss out a couple Willy Pete nades and bravely run away like brave Sir Robin. And fuck Johnson and his complaints about "collateral damage". I'm alive, and the corpo goon hit squad is a problem for later. I also run a half-elf in a separate, homebrewed game and setting that's basically the ol' Chevalier d'Eon, just better looking thanks to the elf genes, and a ladies' flintlock pocket pistol is a shockingly effective assassination weapon when the bulk of the country has a tech level in the early 1400's.